Georgia Tech student Philip Timm testing the team's sailboard in preparation for the Energy Challenge 2002 competition.

Seven teams competed for the prize. The winning team from Georgia Tech, composed of mechanical engineering students Gonzalo Stabile (team captain), Philip Timm, and Yianni Ellis, finished ahead of second and third-place teams from Miami University of Ohio and the University of Maine. Click here to find out how the team created the winning sailboard.

Now engineering students all over the country are getting ready for Energy Challenge 2003 this spring: an all-paper hang glider competition!

For more information on paper boats and the Energy Challenge 2002 Paper Sailboard Competition:
Tech MEs Sail to $15,000 Victory
Georgia Tech Engineering Students to Windsurf Sailboard Made From Paper in Race for $15,000
Energy Challenge 2003 – Paper Hang Glider Competition
Georgia Tech Students Ride the Waves on Paper Sailboard, Win Energy Challenge
Energy Challenge 2002 – Powerpoint Presentation
Georgia Tech Team Sails to Win $15,000 in ‘Paper Board’ Contest – Atlanta Journal-Constitution 04-07-02,
page C-1

Kelley Mandracchia, TAPPI scholarship winner from NCSU.

Meet Kelley Mandracchia, future paper scientist
We hope you will encourage students interested in math and science to consider a career in the pulp and paper industry. The industry is a vital part of our nation’s economy, ranking as the fifth largest manufacturing industry in the country, and a world leader in recycling. Students in many paper science and engineering programs take advantage of paid co-op programs, summer internships, scholarships, and nearly 100 percent job placement with salaries frequently starting at $50,000 per year for undergraduates. Career choices range from manufacturing, process and design engineering, chemical engineering, project engineering, research and product development, forestry, technical sales and marketing, and many more.

Many people may know little, if anything, about paper manufacturing. We asked Kelley Mandracchia, a senior at North Carolina State University and winner of numerous TAPPI scholarships, what attracted her to the study of paper, and why she is making it her career. Click here to read what Kelley said.

Happy New Year! We in TAPPI's Public Outreach Center would like to wish all our subscribers a happy, healthy and successful New Year. We hope that you enjoy our e-newsletter. If you missed any of our issues, or are a recent subscriber, be sure to check our archives.

Be sure to try your hand at our riddle from the 15th century, and send in your answers to outreach@tappi.org. The answer to this riddle will appear in our March/April issue.

WHAT AM I?

I was alive in the forest,
I was cut by the cruel ax,
In life I was silent,
In death I sweetly sing.

Paper Valentine Heart Basket

Make a valentine heart basket for Valentine’s Day! This woven paper craft opens into a small basket for adding candy and small treats for family and friends. This simple version starts with only two sections to weave, but you can add more to make a larger, more intricate design. In contrast to the “over and under” style of traditional weaving, this basket uses the “through and around” method. If your woven heart doesn’t make a basket shape, try again or you can always use it as a hanging decoration.

Supplies You Will Need:

• one sheet each of red and white paper –
  construction paper or card stock work well
• pencil
• scissors
• glue
• ribbon or strip of paper for handle
• treats for filling basket

Here’s how:

1. Fold both sheets of paper in half end to end and line up the folded edges of the two sheets of paper. Now cut the sheets in half along the width. You will be using just one of the white halves and one of the red halves to make your heart.
2. Draw a curved line at the top of the unfolded end of the white paper. This will be the top of the heart. Cut along the line through both thicknesses. Place the white piece on top of the red piece, trace the edge, and cut.
3. Cut a slit in the white paper from the center of the folded edge toward the curved edge, cutting almost to the edge. Repeat with red piece.
4. With your pencil, lightly mark the strips on the red paper with X and Y; on the white paper, mark 1
   and 2.
5. Hold the red and white papers at an angle with each other.
6. Weave the first red strip (marked X) with the white strips: X goes through 2, then 1 goes through X.
7. Weave the second red strip (marked Y) with the white strips: 2 goes through Y, then Y goes through 1.
8. Pull the papers slightly to tighten the weave.
9. Make sure the basket opens for the treats.
10. Glue the loose edges of the heart together, being sure not to close up the opening. Then attach a handle by gluing the ribbon to the top edges of the heart.
11. Carefully erase numbers and letters from outside of basket.
12. Let dry and fill with treats! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Adapted from:
Woven Valentine Heart Basket
Woven Heart
Heart Basket
Woven Heart – Denmark - Papercrafts Around the World, by Phyllis and Noel Fiarotta, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., New York

Be sure to mark your calendars for National Engineers Week, February 16-22, 2003. The New Faces of Engineering is a new program that encourages students, especially women and underrepresented minorities, to consider engineering as a career. It also spotlights the outstanding contributions of America’s youngest professional engineers.

With the goal of expanding the ranks of future engineers, National Engineers Week features a number of creative programs for students. Zoom into Engineering teams volunteer engineers with elementary school students, and Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day has given millions of girls a chance to experience engineering firsthand.

The Future City Competition, now in its 11th year, challenges middle school students to design and build the cities of tomorrow. This innovative program has reached more than 30,000 middle school students from 950 schools, and is one of the nation’s largest and most successful engineering outreach programs. Students, working with teachers and volunteer engineers, build computer and 3-D scale model cities, and then defend their designs before a panel of engineer judges at the competition.

The Sightseers Guide to Engineering interactive map project, created by the National Society of Professional Engineers, celebrates engineering sites and landmarks in all 50 states. This is an outstanding tool to identify field trips and enrich your travels and family vacations. In addition, the Discover Engineering Online outreach program provides materials and programs to both students and engineers who visit classrooms.

For more information, visit the National Engineers Week web site at: www.eweek.org.

Woodcut by Jost Amman [1568] is the earliest picture of papermaking. (from Papermaking: the history and technique of an ancient craft, Dard Hunter, NY, Knopf, 1943)

In the modern paper mill, each roll of paper can weigh several tons. (Photo courtesy of Wisconsin Paper Council)

Q: I’m a student and my exploratory class is studying careers. I have to do the paper industry. It has to be two pages long, and working to make paper doesn’t sound like much fun, pretty boring really. Can you give me some info for my report?

A: You would be amazed at how much fun papermakers have! Perhaps, having read about the life of papermakers in the 1700s, you have formed an erroneous perception of papermaking. Indeed, in the early days when paper was made entirely by hand, papermakers worked in dark, damp and gloomy mills, and you could always spot an old papermaker in the village. His beefy arms and hands were always red and very muscular from continually being in and out of hot water, and his back was stooped from years of bending and leaning over the dipping vat of water. Working twelve hours a day under such rugged conditions required exceptional strength and a robust constitution!

You will be relieved to know that today, the 700 pounds of paper consumed each year by every person in America is not produced this way! Even though the basic paper "formula" has remained the same, papermaking is now a modern, automated, and highly technical industry employing highly skilled men and women.

Be sure to check out Paper U's When I Grow Up section for the Paper U paper industry career brochure as well as the engineering students' stories featured in this issue. For information on the early days of papermaking, see Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft, by Dard Hunter, NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1943.

Here are some other links for more information about careers in the paper industry:

• Pulp and Paper Job Opportunities
• Paper Science and Engineering – Frequently Asked Questions
• What Do Chemical Engineers Do?
• The Modern Paper Mill
• Why Choose a Career in Forest Products?
• Forest Products Careers

We hope that this information is useful to you. Good luck with your project!

Paper Boats

Ken's Paper Boat Page contains information on the unusual topic of paper boat technology. http://www.home.eznet.net/~kcupery/index.html

In 1874, Nathaniel H. Bishop left Troy, New York, in a 58-pound paper canoe, bound for the Gulf of Mexico. Read his fascinating tale at http://www.rtpnet.org/robroy/paperc/intro.html

Paper Industry Careers

Be sure to direct students to our guide to paper industry careers at http://www.tappi.org/paperu/grow_up/greatCareer.htm. Included are the various technical positions available in the industry, and recommended course of study for each job.

There are some great web sites sponsored by colleges and universities where students can explore the various career opportunities in the paper industry. Here are just a few:

• SUNY Paper Science and Engineering Department: http://www.esf.edu/pse/scholarships/careers.htm
• Georgia Institute of Technology Pulp and Paper Engineering Program: http://www.chemse.gatech.edu/~pulpaper/
• University of Maine Department of Chemical Engineering: http://www.umecheme.maine.edu/che/info.htm
• University of Minnesota's College of Natural Resources: http://www.cnr.umn.edu/careers/careerchart.php

Valentine's Day

Here are two sites devoted to Valentine's Day. Read about the history of this very special holiday at
Valentine Be Mine http://www.techdirect.com/valentine/index.html and the History Channel at http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/valentine/.

You Might Be an Engineer if...

• your favorite James Bond character is "Q".
• your family hasn't the foggiest idea what you do at work.
• in college you thought Spring Break was metal fatigue failure.
• you have modified your can-opener to be microprocessor driven.
• you think the real heroes of "Apollo 13" were the mission controllers.
• you take a cruise so you can go on a personal tour of the engine room.
• you have owned a calculator with no equal key and know what RPN stands for.
• you make four sets of drawings (with seven revisions) before making a bird bath.
• you have trouble writing anything unless the paper has horizontal and vertical lines.
• your ideal evening consists of fast-forwarding through the latest sci-fi movie looking for technical inaccuracies.
• you think the value of a book is directly proportionate to the number of tables, charts and graphs it contains.

Q. How many first year engineering students does it take to change a light bulb?
A. None. That's a second year subject.

Q. How many civil engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
A. Two. One to do it and one to steady the chandelier.

Q. How many electrical engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
A. None. They simply redefine darkness as the industry standard.

Q. How many computer engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
A. "Why bother? The socket will be obsolete in six months anyway."

Q. How many mechanical engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
A. Five. One to decide which way the bulb ought to turn, one to calculate the force required, one to design a tool with which to turn the bulb, one to design a comfortable - but functional - hand grip, and one to use all this equipment.

From Profession Jokes – Engineers - http://www.workjoke.com/projoke27.htm